1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an arm rest for use with individually mounted seats of the type provided in many automotive and marine vehicles, and more particularly to a folding arm rest accessory for attachment to such seats.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been a common practice for many years to provide some types of vehicles with individually mounted seats which are oftentimes referred to as bucket seats. Such vehicles include sports cars and some types of boats. In addition to these more or less traditional vehicles, specialty vehicles have been devised in recent years and have become very popular. Such specialty vehicles, including vans, mini motor homes, four-wheel drive vehicles and others, and the above described traditional vehicles come equipped with the individually mounted or bucket seats, and these seats are usually not provided with any arm rests.
A purchaser of many types of traditional or specialty vehicles can obtain, upon special order, upgraded seats which have arm rests built as an integral part of the frame. These arm rests on upgraded seats are fixed, i.e., they cannot be folded out of the way, therefore, the seats are usually mounted on a swivel base to facilitate occupant access to and from the seat. Such upgraded seats, due to the built-in arm rests and swivel mount are relatively expensive and thus many purchasers pass up such a factory option, or subsequently buying from an accessory store.
Accessory arm rests for bolt-on affixation to seats have been devised and such have not been commercially successful for various reasons. One prior art accessory arm rest known to me is bolted beside the individually mounted seat and includes a scissor-like mechanism by which the arm rest is raised and lowered. That arm rest was unsuccessful due to the bulk, complexity, and unsightly appearance of the scissor mechanism, the need for a relatively complex and hard to operate position locking device, pinching of the seat material, occupant's clothing and the occupant himself.
In addition to the above considerations, accessory arm rests of the instant type have inherent design and manufacturing problems. First, to be commercially successful, the arm rest accessory must be capable of being easily attached to a large variety of seat types such as would normally occur between different manufacturers of the same basic type of seat, and such an arm rest should preferrably move with the seat when positioning adjustments are made thereto. Secondly, to cut tooling, packaging, and other related costs, it is preferred that a single arm rest can be adapted to serve as the right arm rest on the driver's seat and the left arm rest on the passenger's seat. To the best of my knowledge, no single prior art device has been devised which satisfies these desirable conditions.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved folding arm rest accessory which overcomes some of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.